THE LONG AND SHORT OF THINGS
Selected Poems and Drawings
1991 - 2015
short spells big on hope long waits small steps tall orders heavy duty nights out light headed reverie
short trips to nowhere
or just inside your head
there is another universe inside
as infinite as the one outside
big day ahead
when something new is about to happen
everyday is something new
everyday is but something new
every new day is a big day
long for a moment of quiet
and then you hear the sounds
of your stupendous days
in rapturous moments
when love makes you jelly
and satisfaction is sheer
when pride makes you beam
as long as humble as a bumble is a happy be
small is where we all start
tall orders we may not have planned
endevour will save the day
persist insist resist
when I am breaking
when I break the fast one
with a snap with a soar
and the crowd roars
and tells you what to do
spills beans lets the cat out spins tales
chat chatting chattering about yours and mine
clatter clutter and more chatter
cluttering our lives
have you had
heavy moments of longing
the droning sound of
an incessant prolonging
dismissing everything else
longing is a prolonged missing
when missing seems so momentously long
longing and missing
prolonging and dismissing
a heavy cycle
one up and three downs
that doubling tripling neverending heavying heaving sound
light takes care of darkness
pride could not care for a fall
in the falling darkness of the woods
we are not sure so we stay still
in the descending night of reverie
we are not sure so we intoxicate
in the spiralling black of despair
we are not sure so we comtemplate
darkness cancels out distance
the infinite space that light would share
the infinite wisdom the enlightened would handle with care
the fall is dizzying
the light is distancing
falling through the distance in a dizzying light
the horizon is a vertigo in a 360 degree flight
YOU, I BEHOLD
You are the impetus
to the truth that I seek
to the truth that I deny
I build a wall
You wait for the chance to break in
I open the door
You are hesitant
_____________________________________________________________________________
llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
like moments I cannot hold
like stories waiting to be told
like time I wish I could fold
for You, these I behold
You fold up the stories
and told the moments to behold
while wishes can likely wait
at last time I can hold
in time alike
a moment wishes to be told
You I behold
the stories we cannot wait to hold
our lives You and I shall fold
You really do know
I must have let You
if only You know
and it is if I let You
but then
lingers to fill our expanding stories
hangs around to illuminate our glories
does its best to hide our grief
will go along with the occasional mischief
is the reason to a triumphant fight
we never knew could edge us to such great heights
but never say neither
to who is doing the favour
when one
becomes the other
when the end meets
the beginning
there is no time anywhere near
nowhere anytime far
to return to those which exist to inhabit us
our lives we live to fulfil thus
the secrets we keep we share with them
the dreams we remember were seeded by them
NEVER SAY NEITHER
as space
and light
when darkness
we know that age
who would have thought that hunger
and thirst
these are the days that were long before
yet not the days that have gone past
we won the clock that tell the time
and lost the stories that time would tell
one less memory we chose to keep
is one less yesterday we try to live
what is yet is still waiting
love will tear us apart if it is to be undying
can you bear the weight of knowing to lift the burden of unknowing
or is it not the waiting that is love that is apart that is undying
the burden knowing bears for the unknowing
the weight the unknowing lifts for the knowing
in a world where the earth is flat
how far to go
to see the blue planet of lands and seas
to fathom the mysteries of the galaxies
to feel the pierce of Munches s s s s s s s scream
and admit the horror of our extremes
in a world where the earth is flat
how long more before we
fall off the edge
In the deep of the amazing zone
Is a place like coming home
At the twinkle of twilight
A caravan a shiny bug
Appearing like shards of light
A delicate portal of strength and vulnerability
This place you see is not without its ironies
The humble throne hides a mighty lair
An unexpected scent disguising the air
You will see it if you are meant to find it
In a chance stumbling
Or a lifetime of searching
THE
CARAVAN
OF
VINES AND SONGS
Enter here through the gold and green
To trust you will be received
In a place like this
You have to be quite bold
Or possess the wisdom of the old
Or simply give up all that you know
And you will receive
T h e l e g e n d a r y g i f t
From your wanting from your wonder
For your deliverance for your trouble
Of them and their mysteries
Of us and our stories
Your ball of nerves unfold like silk
Threads untie you leave behind
Your knowings and your forgettings
You see it all as you set them free
The geometric and the gore
Your cells divide with you inside
A fractal you become
In a million familiar peculiar
Universe of shapes and sizes
You expanding and contracting
Through one of your many versions in
The Caravan of Vines and Songs
CAREFULLY
do not enrage Leonardo
his
Mona Lisa
smiling at me
CAREFULLY do not disturb
the tightrope
the slience above the focus between
the nothing below
CAREFULLY float
the astronauts in space
breath that exchange
in a space that was
never more contained
CAREFULLY do not tell
how many times
visiting the queen
through the last exit to brooklyn
dreaming of a poet
could not be more
CAREFULLY alone
instead carefully lost
in the garden
where gingerly thoughts long to stray
CAREFULLY watch
the rogerring rabbits wondering
where Alice is
CAREFULLY happy
to wait
as purple
rain in torrents
and colours the LAND
A Spy-der
on the
Moon
I think I spy
I think
I spy the
spider with nine legs
with my delirious mind.
I spy I think
I spy the spider
between the won-der-flo-wers
with half moons
within my spurious mind.
What does it want,
I wonder
looking at
the wonton-ful
won-der-spi-der.
Is it a spy
sent to determine
my mind?
wondering why
it is nothing but
just a stupendous
delirious blob-mess
of a find
that babbles incoherently
about a spy-der that spys
with nine legs or hinds?
Does the number of legs
to do with the number of lives
it could lead
or the number of minds
it could have
I ask my dear spy
the spy-der with nine hinds.
Or is it that
each of a mind
is for each of a hind
or is it that
nine is the number of
everything you have?
“None”
says the flowers
so won-ton-fully-spied
and sprayed
with dots and curls
from the hind of the
nine minded spy-der.
text and title by Kiatho
inspired by the drawing
Just like the spy-der
with nine hinds
wandering, wondering
always
spotted, crooked
spying, eyeing
going no-where
but a big circle
leaving his trail
in-between
the won-ton-derous
flowers that curl
beneath the twilight
smiling pitifully
at it.
For having nine or none
is the same thing
for once a mind
it is always
a mind that
confuses, lingers,
craves, strangling, leaving
g a s p s of
incoherent delirious ideas
that spoils,
rules,
and kills,
our
lives.
Circumambulating
luna-tically lost
like a man
on the moon.
moonamongmoons
the dragon
the bullfrog and
the angelfish
the dragon hides
between the bullfrog
and the angelfish
\what am I?
the dragon stops the angelfish
you are the fragments of my tail
what am I?
asks the dragon to the bullfrog
you are but the figments of my imagination
the angelfish continues its an-gel-dance
the gel-an-ish-f
in aglish
but what is the bullfrog?
is it the bull
that you think of
of
or the frog in the bull
of or
is it the b-ull frog that you dream of
but what is a ull-frog
or a frog-bull
one ogbu ogbu about
ah but d-rag-on dragon
secret sees
the ull of the frog
and the el of the fish
but can you ever see the etgns of it all
one wonders
or is it the etgns that is the angst
that tumbles
and jumbles
tipping in awe
ah but to see the angel
that floats in the guise of a fish
that whims
and swims
weaving dreams
round the bull of a frog
that bathes in the warmth of its soft tender fog
that each but dreams with eyes aclose
to see
the drag
on the stream
of souls arose
that wonders
what it might unfold
what angest could be got
from etgns
or egnst
that wonders
the fish-angel
with tail a-dotted
like the back
of the bull in the frog
ah but what does the drag see
but maybe the gon
from angel
from bull
of fish
of frog
but what am I the dragon?
maybe just the e’s from
the lines
that gon
from frog and fish
and back
perhaps it is not three
but just one
of angel, frog
dragon, fish
and bull
one wonders
at the ull-on-el of it all
text by Kiatho inspired by the drawing
HIPPOCAMPUS
with Beard
and Barnacles on Belly
